Email this article to a friend

Is retirement in your near future?

Senior Correspondent Mike Causey is on vacation. This column first appeared on July 11, 2012.

When you look in the mirror do you see a familiar, dashing IRS auditor, a
concerned NASA engineer, a serious VA systems manager or do you have Charles
Dickens moment and peer at the Ghost of Christmas Future? Are you the commuter
or the "future you" sleeping late, without work deadlines and figuring out what do
for the rest of your life?

Hundreds of thousands of career federal workers are
eligible to retire right now. In the next couple of years that already huge
number will rise dramatically. In some offices, half the staff could leave
anytime. If you doubt it, look around you! Or in the mirror!

Washington's always thriving sky-is-falling industry has
been predicting a retirement tidal wave (later upgraded to tsunami) for the past
13 years. But one of these days, they will be correct.

The combination of age and service-time buildup, pay
freezes, congressional hostility (at least on the House side) toward federal
workers, and the lure of sleeping late and skipping rush hour will take its toll.
The Postal Service, the second largest federal agency, is downsizing big-time
(with the worst probably yet to come). Other departments, agencies and
specialized units are offering workers the chance to take regular or early
retirement along with a $25,000 (before deductions) buyout.

Buyouts are being offered to some Air Force civilians,
IRS employees, headquarters workers at GSA and NASA, and to
some Agriculture staffers. Navy and the Veterans Affairs are
also offering buyouts for a limited time. For an up-to-date list of 2012 buyouts,
click here. And more to come...

The number of buyout offers is expected to jump in October.
That's the start of the new fiscal year (when buyouts are most cost-effective to
federal agencies). Also Congress — with all eyes focused on the upcoming
election — most likely won't approve most federal agency budgets for the new
year. And there is the possibility of sequestration taking effect. Few people
grasp what it means, and how it would work, but most experts said it would not be
a good thing.

If you are even thinking about retiring in the next couple
of years, there are a couple of reality-check items to consider:

How long and how well could you live if your monthly annuity payments are 40
to 80 percent less than you expected them to be? OPM is making headway in reducing its retirement backlog, but as more people decide to
leave or take buyouts, it could be months before your first pension payment is
deposited in your account. Meantime, as more agencies process more applications,
the error rates (in the papers they send OPM) are going up.

Would you consider phased retirement? Working for a few months or a couple
of years longer, but putting in fewer hours. Maybe going for a two or three-day
workweek. It could help you ease into retirement and also mentor (as in train)
your replacement.

A Lubbock County, Texas, judge said President Barack Obama's re-election could spark a second civil war, leading U.N. troops to invade the state. The U.N. Secretary-General's spokesman, who laughed the idea off, said: "No one, not even the United Nations, would ever mess with Texas," according to a Reuters report.

MORE FROM FEDERAL NEWS RADIO

Lawmaker says fed pay, benefits used as 'piggybank' in deficit reduction
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), whose district in the Washington, D.C., suburbs is home to many federal employees, said he understands the frustration voiced by federal unions about a de facto extension of the federal pay freeze. Sarbanes said too often lawmakers used federal pay and benefits as a "piggybank" in deficit-reduction efforts

VA seeks outsider to review conference planning policies
The Veterans Affairs Department wants a contractor to review the agency's conference planning and conference acquisition policies, according to a request for information in FedBizOpps. The solicitation comes weeks after revelations that VA had spent a total of $5 million on two conferences last year, according to findings from a preliminary investigation by the VA's Office of the Inspector General.